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Microsoft Office Execution Jump Memory Corruption Vulnerability

Risk

High

Date Discovered

February 12, 2008

Description

Microsoft Office is prone to a remote code-execution vulnerability.
An attacker could exploit this issue by enticing a victim to open a malicious Office file.
Successfully exploiting this issue would allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the currently logged-in user.

Technologies Affected

Microsoft Office 2000

Microsoft Office 2000 SP1

Microsoft Office 2000 SP2

Microsoft Office 2000 SP3

Microsoft Office 2003

Microsoft Office 2003 SP1

Microsoft Office 2003 SP2

Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac

Microsoft Office XP

Microsoft Office XP SP1

Microsoft Office XP SP2

Microsoft Office XP SP3

Recommendations

Run all software as a nonprivileged user with minimal access rights.

To mitigate the impact of a successful exploit, run the affected application as a user with minimal access rights.

Deploy NIDS to monitor network traffic for signs of suspicious or anomalous activity. This may help detect malicious actions that an attacker may take after successfully exploiting vulnerabilities in applications. Review all applicable logs regularly.

Do not accept or execute files from untrusted or unknown sources.

Users should never accept files from untrusted or unknown sources, because they may be malicious in nature. Avoid opening email attachments from unknown or questionable sources.

Implement multiple redundant layers of security.

Since this issue may be leveraged to execute code, we recommend memory-protection schemes, such as nonexecutable stack/heap configurations and randomly mapped memory segments. This tactic may complicate exploit attempts of memory-corruption vulnerabilities.

The vendor released an advisory and updates to address this issue. Please see the references for more information.

Disclaimer
The information in the advisory is believed to be accurate at the time of publishing based on currently available information. Use of the information constitutes acceptance for use in an AS IS condition. There are no warranties with regard to this information. Neither the author nor the publisher accepts any liability for any direct, indirect, or consequential loss or damage arising from use of, or reliance on, this information.

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